I was at Aish for a short time in '95, during my last stay in Israel. Now, Aish is a clean facility, the food is good and the accomodations are relatively OK. But the real questions is, ""given their smicha (ordination) program what future does a BT really have? Will they stay in Israel? Pretty dangerous right now. Will they go back to the States or another country? What
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A cousin of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach's is a Lubavitcher who was involved in trying to get me out of the Hickman Hebrew Christian cult. One day, he and his chevrusa partner came to my family's house on LI and he pulled me aside and gave me a very stern lecture: "Jesus Christ couldn't be the messiah because he in his lifetime. One chance is all you get", he said.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A lot of BT yeshivas and the people who run them, are close by each other or know each other. Heritage House, Aish, Diaspora Yeshiva, Chabad on the Cardo, TOPS, etc are all in the Old City. I've seen them takes rides in cars together although that might seem innocuous to some I don't think it is. In particular, Heritage House is often a first stop to recruit new BTs as is Jeff
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There was a newspaper article in Israel, some years ago, showing a picture of a haredi. As he just moved into a new, mostly secular neighborhood the first thing that he started doing was arguing with his new neighbors over religion. Some of these people want to shove their beliefs down everyone else's throats. It's unfortunate. What's also unfortunate, to my way of th
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

With the resurrection of the Jewish commonwealth and Israel's victories in it's subsequent wars with the Arabs, many orthodox Jews thought that the rebulding of the "Beis Hamikdosh" or "Holy Temple" would occur bringing in the "messianic redemption". Many young Jews flocked to Israel to study, visit and work in Israel. One of the really big Jewish so
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

There's a picture on this site of a haredi yelling. In particular, the haredim confronted the Reform Jews who visited Israel a few years ago. They called Reform Judaism a "cult", and said something to the effect of "how dare this cult come to Israel", etc. The Reform leader was told that his family should have stayed in Israel to have died in the holocaust at the hands
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My involvement with orthodoxy goes back a long way to my youth. My father didn't practice orthodoxy, but he's gone so far as to say that "orthodox Judaism is th only type of Judaism that's worth anything." I disagree, especially outside of Israel. I've found many orthodox Jews to be narrow-minded and pendantic, and I've had many arguments with them over r
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Lubavitch set up a hotline and hired a psychiatrist to give grief counseling around the time their Grand Rabbi died. It was advertised in a major Jewish newspaper. I called up the line. As all of you know by now if you've read my other posts, I've been wanting to neutralize this group for years. I started asking a lot of pointed, nosy questions. The counselor was taken ab
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I used to go to many Shlomo concerts when he was in the NYC and LI areas. I was about 15 when I met him. I was usually headed off by some orthodox Rabbi, who definitely didn't want me around him. I'm damned if I do, and damned if I don't try to be orthodox. After what I went through in public school, I wanted to know that some orthodox leader actually gave a hoot about me
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Torah True Opinions (hencefore referred to as "TTO's". "Find the TTO" is a favorite game among BT's everywhere, especially at D'var Yerushalayim which was my first stop in the BT yeshiva world. It's simple. You ask a question no one can possibly answer like: "Is God so powerful that he can make a rock so heavy that he can't lift it?"
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The funny thing thing is that the whole time before I converted to Christianity, and I was still within the Jewish faith, I never saw any orthodox Jewish people, let alone outreach workers, around the area. Even when I was being persecuted in school for being Jewish. Then, when I converted, all of a sudden there were Jewish religious leaders all around me. Only after I became a problem to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

When I got involved in Jack Hickman's organization, it was billed as "your church". There were free dinners, lots of fellowship, free bible studies, etc. Then about a year later all of a sudden that deal was off. The membership was divided up between 12 elders and each member of the church was assigned an elder to oversee his spiritual development. Mine was fellow "He
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I have one of the foremost collections of the rabbis' recordings. As I know members of his family and a lot of his top chasidim I'm aware of about 70 or so unique offerings. Some of the later recordings feature the stories he used to always tell in concert: Moshele the Water Carrier, Shvartze Wolf, Shniedel the Tailor, Yossele the Holy Miser are just a few. These stories us
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Shlomo, the singing rabbi (HaRebbe Hashir) was the charismatic rabbi who used his songs to attract (mekarev) Jews into the orthodoxy. He was a VERY controversial figure. Considered the father of modern Jewish music, he inspired other figures, like Rebbetzin Ester Jungreis, to become active in attracting Jews back into the orthodoxy. Shlomo is said to have attracted thousands of people al
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My first stop in Israel in '78 was at Yeshivat D'var Yerushalayim. Although I only stayed there for about 3 months during a summer program, it made an indelible mark on me. Although D'var advertises on its website that it allows students to progress at their own pace, it didn't find all of that to be the case. My life was made miserable at D'var, mostly by the stud
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I got involved in the BT movement in the mid 70s. Back then, only ultra orthodox groups were doing outreach and it was pretty strict. Even something like shaving your beard was a major problem. I remember an article in the Jewish Press many years ago that said that using an electric razor was not permitted by any major poskim (interperator of Jewish law, ie, Rabbi). Let alone, not wearin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

The BT movement (or Chozrim Bitshuva) has a few thousand people who were attracted to it. Rick has some documentation about an overview about it on the Chabad/Lubavitch page and on the Ultra-Orthodox page. Many times people forsake their families and friends when they become BTs. I found, that, especially in the case of Chabad BT's, it's impossible to stay friends with these peo
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I'm extremely worried about the proliferation of the Chabad Lubavitch movement. Rick classifies it as a dangerous cult an I concur with him. If you check out my exharedimsite yahoo group groups.yahoo.com/group/exharemdimsite you'll find a large document about much of what happened to me at Lubavitch. I was attacked by people with objects like knives and tools. Also, it's
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

In 1973, I got involved with a church on Hicksville, Long Island called St. John's Lutheran church. It had a sister church, Christ Lutheran, in East Meadow. At first, there was a minimally Jewish orientation. A number of Jews belonged to this church including some people who went to my synagogue's Hebrew school. About a year after I joined it, the leader, Jack Hickman, dec
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"